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IT” and “THERE” as Subjects

NOTIONAL “IT”

PERSONAL DEMONSTRATIVE
It stands for a thing mentioned in the previous context: a) The door opened. It was opened by a young girl of ten. b) The postman broughtthe letter.It is on the table. It points out some person or thing expressed by a predicative noun, or it may refer to the thought contained in a preceding statement, thus having a demonstrative meaning: a) It is John. b)It was a large room with a great window. It = This c) Mary returned home late. It irritated his mother.  

FORMAL SUBJECTS ‘’IT” AND “THERE”

IMPERSONAL EMPHATIC INTRODUCTORY
IT IT IT THERE
a) Natural phenomena, characteristics of the environment. It was October, drizzling and dark. b) Time It was nine o’clock. c) Distance It is a long wayto Ireland. d) State of things in general “Itis all over, Mrs. Thingummy!” said the surgeon. Note: 1) Here belong sentences with the predicate expressed by the noun time followed by the Infinitive: It was high time to take the departure. 2) Sentences with the predicate expressed by the verbs: to seem, to appear, to turn out, followed by a clause: It seemed that he didn’t know the place (state of affairs). 3) Sentences with predicative adjectives preceded by too and followed by an Infinitive: Itwas too late to start (time). Structures with emphatic it are used to give any part of the sentence more importance. The structure of such sentences is as follows:   It + is/was + emphasized part of the sentence + who/that + the rest of the sentence: Itis they who give wisdom and understanding. Itis the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.   Note: The predicate agrees with the emphasized part not with who: It is I who am laughed at. It isthey who are losing a game. It is you who are wrong.   It is difficult to translate this article. To translate this article is difficult   It is strangethat he didn’t come. That he didn’t come is strange.   It is awfully hard work doing nothing. It is no good going there so early. It is no use crying over spilt milk.   Doing nothing is awfully hard work. There introduces the notional subject expressed by: a) noun: There was silence for a moment. There is a time for all things. b) pronouns (some, any, somebody, no one, anything): There wasnobody in the room. There isnothingnew under the sun. c) gerund, gerundial phrase: There isno smoking here. d) clause: First,there is what we might call a pattern. Note: 1) There is used with the verb to be to talk about something that exists. It also precedes the following group of verbs: to remain, to exist, to live, to come, to go, to appear, etc. 2) There can be found in the following idiomatic expressions: There’s no point / There’s no sense + in + Gerund/ Gerundial Complex: There's no sense in your doing this   There’s no need + Infinitive/ For-to-Infinitive Construction: There is no need to phone him.

 



Anumber of common expressions includeIt is no... or There is no.... Study the following examples:

It is no secret that the President wants to have a second term. It is no surprise that his latest production was a success. It is no wonder Dad felt angry. It is no use telling me this. It is no good getting so annoyed. It was no coincidence that they left the party at the same time. It is no longer necessary to have a visa to visit this country. There is no alternative but to ask her to leave. There is no denying that he is a a very good footballer. There is no hope of getting money for the research. There is no need to explain how it works. There is no point in buying an expensive computer. There is no question of agreeing to his demands. There is no reason to be pessimistic. There is no chance of meeting him.

It ... patterns are used with the following verbs: amaze, annoy, bother, frighten, please, surprise, appear, follow, happen, seem.Such sentences have the following structure: It+Verb+(Object) + that-clause:

It surprised me that they didn’t come to any agreement.

It worried me that he drove so fast.

Some verbs are commonly used with an it ...pattern when they are in the passive:accept, agree, believe, decide, expect, intend, plan, think, understand:

It is believed that a horseshoe brings good luck.

It is planned that they will come tomorrow.

 

 

THE PREDICATE

The predicate is a word or a group of words that informs us of what is happening to the person, object or phenomenon indicated as the subject in the sentence. It is the second main part of the sentence and its organizing centre.

The predicate may be considered from the semantic (= dealing with the meaning of words) or from the structural point of view.

According to its semantics (= the meaning of its components), the predicate may denote an action, a state, a quality, or an attitude to some action or state ascribed to the subject.

From the structural point of view there are two main types of the predicate: the simple predicate and the compound predicate.

The simple predicate can be verbal and nominal:

 

The simple verbal predicate The simple nominal predicate
The simple verbal predicate can be expressed by: 1. a verb in its synthetic or analytical form: His words frightened me. I shouldn’t think the idea so unreasonable. 2. a verb phrase: a) denoting single actions: to have a look, to have a smoke, to give a cry, to make a move, to have a talk, to make a remark, to pay a visit, etc: I took a walk as far as the river. b) denoting various kinds of actions: to change one’s mind, to get hold(of), to take care (of), to lose sight (of), to make fun (of), to make up one’s mind, etc: They have been taking care of your children long enough. The simple nominal predicate can be expressed by: 1. a noun: Me, a liar! 2. an adjective: You sad! 3. an infinitive or an infinitive phrase: My boy insulta gentleman at my table! 4. Participle I or a participial phrase: She spying! The simple nominal predicate doesn’t contain a link verb. In the meaning of the simple nominal predicate there is an implied negation. Sentences with this type of predicate are always exclamatory and are used in colloquial English, although not frequently.

 

The compound predicate consists of two parts: the structural (which comes first) and the notional (which follows the structural part). The notional part may be expressed by a noun, an adjective, a stative, an adverb, a verbal, a phrase, a predicative complex, or a clause. The notional part is the main bearer of meaning. The structural part is expressed by a finite verb ― a phrasal verb, a modal verb, or a link verb. The structural part carries grammatical information about the person, number, tense, voice, modal, attitudinal and phasal meaning of the whole predicate.

The compound predicate can be verbal and nominal.

The compound verbal predicate falls into three types:

 

 

The compound verbal phasal predicate The compound verbal modal predicate The compound verbal predicate of double orientation  
The compound verbal phasal predicate denotes the beginning, duration, repetition or cessation of the action expressed by an infinitive or a gerund. It consists of a phasalverb and an infinitive or a gerund. The phasal verb can be a verb of: 1. beginning: to begin, to start, to commence, to setabout, etc: The man began to play a lively tune. 2. duration: to go on, to keep, to proceed, to continue, etc: Royce continued to workquietly as the other two talked. 3. repetition: would, used to (denoting a repeated action in the past): He would go there every afternoon just for pleasure. 4. cessation: to stop, to finish, to cease, to give up, etc: I gave up smoking. The compound verbal modal predicate consists of a modal part and an infinitive (or a gerund). The modal part may be expressed by:   1. a modal verb: You will have to do as you were told. 2. a modal expression of nominal nature:to be able, to be allowed, to be going, to beanxious, etc: We were anxious to cooperate. The compound verbal predicate of double orientation consists of two parts. The first part is the finite verb which denotes the attitude to, evaluation of or comment on the content of the sentence. The second part denotes the action performed by the person / non-person expressed by the subject. The first part of this type of predicate can be expressed by: 1. intransitive verbs of seeming and happening: to seem, to appear, to prove, to turn out, etc: He seemed to have heard the news. 2. some verbs in the passive voice: a) verbs of saying: to say, to declare, to state, etc: The delegation is said to have arrived. b) verbs of mental activity: to believe, to consider, to find, to think, to understand, etc: He has never been known to losehis temper. c) verbs of perception: to feel, to hear, to see, to watch, etc: The lady was seen to leave the house. 3. phrases with some modal meaning: to be likely, to be sure, to be certain, etc: The weather is not likely to change.

 

The compound nominal predicate can be of two types: proper and double.

 

The compound nominal predicate proper The compound nominal double predicate
The compound nominal predicate proper consists of a link verb and a predicative (a nominal part). The link verb can be of 3 types: 1. link verbs of being: to be, to feel, to sound, to smell, to taste, to look, etc: He looked awful. 2. link verbs of becoming: to become, to grow, to turn, to get, to make: The girl will make a good teacher. 3. link verbs of remaining: to remain, to continue, to keep, to stay: The children kept silent. The predicative can be expressed by nouns, adjectives / adjectival phrases, pronouns, numerals, infinitives / infinitive phrases or constructions, gerunds / gerundial phrases or constructions, participles / participial phrases, prepositional phrases, statives, indivisible groups of words and clauses: It’s me. Her eyes grew angry. That is what has happened. My idea is to go there myself. My hobby is dancing. The compound nominal double predicate consists of two parts both of which are notional. The first one is expressed by a notional verb denoting an action or process performed by the person / non-person expressed by the subject. The second part of the predicate is expressed by a noun or an adjective denoting the properties of the subject. This type of predicate is often used after verbs which perform the double function of denoting a process and serving as link verbs: to die, to live, to lie, to marry, to sit , to stand to shine, etc. The predicate denotes two separate notions: The moon was shining cold and bright ( a) The moon was shining; b) The moon was cold and bright). My daughter sat silent. He died a hero. The moon rose round and yellow.

 


Date: 2015-12-18; view: 1125


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